O'Hare: Finish the job

A Boeing 757 touched down Thursday on Runway 9L-27R at O'Hare International Airport, inaugurating the first new runway at the airport in nearly 40 years.

This was an impressive feat, given the massive legal, political and logistical hurdles the airport expansion project has faced.

But you have to wonder if 9L-27R will be the last runway to open at O'Hare for the next 40 years.

The Tribune reported Thursday that major airlines are balking at the rest of the expansion plans.

The city has asked the Federal Aviation Administration for nearly $200 million in passenger ticket taxes to get going on Phase Two of the O'Hare expansion. The money would pay for design and engineering work for a new southern runway, reconfiguration of existing runways and a terminal at the west end of the airfield.

United and American Airlines, O'Hare's dominant carriers, asked the FAA in June not to approve those funds. The city and the airlines are negotiating the timing and financing of O'Hare's future.

Our firm view is that completion of the O'Hare expansion project is absolutely critical to the economic future of Chicago and Illinois. The FAA should grant the city's request and keep this project on track.

We understand the airlines are in a difficult financial position. The number of passengers flying over the Labor Day weekend dropped 6 percent compared with last year, according to the Air Transport Association, which represents the nation's commercial airlines. The ATA predicts 10 percent fewer passengers will travel over the Thanksgiving holiday compared with last year.

That reflects a deeply troubled economy. But the U.S. and the world will eventually recover. The FAA projects domestic air travel will grow more than 40 percent, to more than 1 billion passengers a year, by 2016.

O'Hare has operated at capacity for years. That means other airlines have not been able to fly there, and airlines have considered expanding operations at other airports. That's an economic risk for Illinois.

O'Hare has to get away from playing catch-up. It needs to prepare for the future, to have adequate capacity to meet demand.

It has to have the capacity to embrace new airline competitors. Despite the slump in air travel, Virgin America wants to get into O'Hare but can't. It has landing rights but hasn't been able to lease gates. United and American have reduced passenger capacity at O'Hare by more than 20 percent since 2000. They have gates to spare, but they control leasing rights to those gates until 2018 and they aren't about to welcome a feisty competitor. Making room for Virgin and other competitive threats at O'Hare won't make United and American happy. It is, however, in the best interests of Chicago and passengers.

The airlines have concerns about cost overruns and the efficiency of expansion plans. Chicago can't afford to be arrogant -- it needs to listen. In today's Voice of the People, representatives of United and American say they "remain committed to working with the city to enhance and improve this world-class airport."

That's good to hear. But negotiations can't be allowed to put this project on hold. That will mean higher costs and greater risk to Chicago's economic future.

It took an enormous effort to build Runway 9L-27R. Let's get the rest of the job done.